• A wild experimentation of visual style and a hell of a debut for Sergei Parajanov
  • An unbridled aesthetic achievement—he throws the kitchen sink at it so to speak stylistically—it doesn’t all land, and you don’t always feel like you’re watching a cohesive whole even if you’re flabbergasted at what you’re seeing very often throughout the 97 minutes
  • Apparently Parajanov was inspired by Ivan’s Childhood from Tarkovsky in 1962—it’s definitely its own ambitious animal stylistically though- not as measured as Tarkovsky—I see hints of Truffaut’s Shoot the Piano Player and Tom Jones in the tone and style
  • Ebert “sometimes visual style is bursting with life, sometimes merely overwrought” and I tend to agree—he compares Parajanov to a young Scorsese
  • From the outset you know you’re in for a ride—you’re sitting, POV, with the camera on a falling tree
  • The editing transitions, flashing to red, are inspired—red chapter titles
  • Manipulation of film stock speed often
  • Fluid camera—fluid may be wrong—free, unhinged and unhindered—it’s not smooth or graceful—it’s a great match for the tall-tale folklore content
  • Dubbing is the only way to do this
  • There’s a low-angle shot of a flower up from the dirt to show the idyllic love—very Wellesian—canted angles—uses hills in this way as well
  • Wonderful 360 tracking shot in the forest with rain
  • The narrative is a series of tragedies and formally marked by putting up crosses—
  • Switches to black and white after Ivan’s Marichka’s death—goes from color and vibrant to black and white and depressing- nice touch
  • Then we go back to color for this great dissolve editing sequence Christ-montage dream and then back to reality with the black and white. Then back to color again when he meets another woman. Whew!
  • Surrealism and sorcery—the new love is the devil and his past love haunts him
  • mise-en-scene perfection isn’t forgotten even with all of the camerawork
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  • A genius slow-motion sequence at a tavern- very inventive with washed out color and the camera tracking
  • A great reflection shot seemingly from underwater
  • HR/MS– I could see it going higher with a second visit but it’s a lot to take in at first